( 


\  ■ 


EULOGY 


WILLIAMS 


!=e©LtEtjE= 
DUPLICATE 

SOLD     I 


COENELIl'S  CO  WAY  FELTON,  LLD,&c, 


nxR  OF  THE  REGENTS  OF  TTIK 


SMTTHSONIAIS^   INSTITUTION. 


I'RRPARED  AT  THE   REQUEST  OF  THE  BOARD 


BY 


THEODORE  D.  WOOLSEY,  LL.D., 

PRESIDENT  OF  YAI.E  COT.LEOE. 


MAT,   1862. 


WASHING  T  0  N  : 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION. 

1862. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
,,  in  .2007  with  funding. from 
IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


'http://wwW.archive.org/details/eulogyofcorneliuOOfeltiala 


Dc~G5lZ0Z 


EULOGY 


CORNELLS  COWAY  FELTON,  LL.D,&c, 


ONE  OF  THE  REGENTS  OF  THE 


SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION. 


PREPARED  AT  THE  REQUEST  OF  THE  BOARD 

BY 

THEODOEE  D.  WOOLSEY,  LL.D., 

PRE8IDEST  OF  TALE  COLLESE. 


MAY,   1862. 


WASHINGTON: 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION. 

1862. 


PHILADELPHIA  : 
COLLINS,    PBINTEB. 


At  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Regents  of  the  Smithsonian  Insti. 
tution,  held  May  1,  1862,  Professor  Henry,  the  Secretary,  having 
announced  the  death  of  Dr.  Felton,  one  of  the  Regents,  Professor 
Bache  made  a  few  appropriate  remarks,  and  offered  the  following 
resolutions,  which  were  unanimously  adopted. 

Besolved,  That  the  Board  of  Regents  of  the  Smithsonian  Insti- 
tution deeply  mourn  the  loss  of  their  fellow  Regent,  Cornelius 
Conway  Felton,  the  distinguished  President  of  Harvard  Univer- 
sity, whose  profound  learning  and  ready  use  of  the  rich  stores  of 
ancient  and  modern  lore,  excited  general  admiration,  while  his  genial 
temper,  affectionate  disposition,  and  open  manners,  endeared  him  as 
a  friend  to  every  member  of  this  establishment. 

Resolved,  That  in  the  death  of  President  Felton,  our  country,  in 
the  hour  of  its  trial,  has  lost  a  wise  and  influential  citizen,  our  go- 
vernment a  warm  and  eloquent  supporter,  Harvard  IJniversity  a 
learned  and  eflficient  head,  and  this  Institution  an  active  and  valued 
Regent. 

Resolved,  That  we  sincerely  condole  with  the  bereaved  family  of 
President  Felton,  and  oflfer  to  them  our  heartfelt  sympathy  in  their 
deep  aflfliction. 

Resolved,  That  Dr.  Woolsey  be  requested  to  prepare  a  suitable 
notice  of  President  Felton,  to  be  inserted  in  the  journal  of  the  Board 
of  Regents. 

Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  communicated  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  to  the  family  of  the 
deceased,  and  to  the  Faculty  and  Corporation  of  Harvard. 


EULOGY. 


The  duty  has  been  laid  upon  me  of  preparing  a 
brief  tribute  to  the  memory  of  Cornelius  C.  Felton, 
late  a  regent  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution.  I  un- 
dertake this  office  the  more  readily,  because  a  friendly 
and  most  pleasant  acquaintance  of  nearly  thirty  years' 
standing,  cemented  by  common  pursuits  and  unbroken 
by  any  of  those  jealousies  which  sometimes  divide 
men  of  the  same  literary  calling,  has  enabled  me  to 
form  a  definite  opinion  of  the  worth  and  services  of 
one  whose  death  the  country,  in  common  with  Massa- 
chusetts and  with  Harvard  University,  deplores. 

Cornelius  Conway  Felton,  the  son  of  worthy  but 
by  no  means  opulent  parents,  was  bom  at  West 
Newbury,  Massachusetts,  November  6,  1807.  The 
first  decided  impulse  in  the  direction  of  scholarship 
and  of  a  taste  for  letters  was  given  to  him  by  Simeon 
Putnam,  who  kept  a  private  school  at  North  Ando- 
ver,  with  whom  he  remained  as  a  pupil  a  year  and 
three  months.  In  this  year  and  a  quarter  prior  to 
his  entrance  into  college,  Putnam  awakened  so  great 
an  enthusiasm   in  the  mind  of  his  pupil,  that  the 


( 


latter,  according  to  a  statement  in  manuscript  drawn 
up  by  one  of  his  friends,  "read  Sallust  four  times, 
Cicero's  Orations  four  times,  Virgil  six  times,  Dalzel's 
Greeca  Minora  five  or  six  times,  and  the  poetry  of  it 
till  he  could  repeat  nearly  all  of  it  from  memory,  the 
Annals  and  History  of  Tacitus,  Justin,  Cornelius 
Nepos,  the  Anabasis  of  Xenophon,  four  hooks  of 
Eobinson's  Selections  from  the  Iliad,  the  Greek  Tes- 
tament four  times,  besides  writing  a  translation  of 
one  of  the  Gospels,  and  writing  a  translation  of  the 
whole  of  Grotius  de  Veritate,  which  he  brought  in 
manuscript  to  college;  also  he  wrote  a  volume  of 
about  three  hundred  pages  of  Latin  exercises,  and 
one  of  about  two  hundred  pages  of  Greek  exercises, 
and  studied  carefully  all  the  mathematics  and  geo- 
graphy requisite  to  enter  college."  That  the  severe 
study  necessary  in  order  to  do  all  this  in  so  short  a 
time  might  be  detrimental  to  his  health  will  be  rea- 
dily believed.  He  suffered  from  these  overstrained 
efforts  during  his  residence  in  college  and  afterward. 
Still  he  continued  his  course  of  earnest  study  through 
hij  college  life,  devoting  a  good  deal  of  spare  time  to 
extra  Greek,  and  forming  an  acquaintance  with  seve- 
ral of  the  modern  languages  and  with  the  Hebrew. 
Besides  which  he  contributed  to  his  own  support  in 
several  ways,  especially  by  keeping  school  during 
parts  of  his  Sophomore  and  Junior  years,  and  in  the 
latter  year  by  teaching  mathematics  for  six  months  in 
the  Roundhill  school  at  Northampton  under  Messrs. 


Cogswell  and  Bancroft.  He  was  prepared,  by  this 
introduction  into  the  art  of  teaching  and  by  his  ex- 
cellent scholarship,  for  the  employment  in  which  he 
was  engaged  for  two  years  from  the  time  of  his  gra- 
duation— the  charge  of  a  high  school  at  Geneseo, 
New  York,  which  he  undertook  in  company  with 
two  of  his  classmates.  From  Geneseo  he  Avas  called 
back,  in  1829,  to  his  Alma  Mater  to  fill  the  office  of 
Latin  tutor,  from  which  department  he  was  transfer- 
red the  next  year  to  the  Greek.  His  election  to  the 
chair  of  College  Professor  in  1832  showed  the  esti- 
mation in  which  he  was  held  by  the  authorities  of 
the  University.  On  the  resignation  of  Dr.  Popkin  in 
1833,  who  had  the  chair  of  Greek  Literature  upon 
the  Eliot  foundation,  Mr.  Felton  was  appointed  his 
successor,  and  continued  in  this  professorship  until 
his  elevation  to  the  Presidency  in  1860.  Thus  thirty 
years  of  his  life  were  spent  in  cultivating  and  teaching 
Greek  letters. 

As  a  Greek  scholar,  he  was  not  surpassed  for 
breadth  and  accuracy  by  any  other  in  the  land.  His 
nature  was  many-sided,  and  he  strove  after  complete 
scholarship  both  in  what  pertained  to  the  language, 
and  in  what  pertained  to  all  the  branches  of  the 
literature  of  the  Hellenic  race.  Yet,  like  every 
other  scholar,  he  had  his  favorite  departments  of 
pursuit,  while  other  sides  of  it  had  less  attraction 
for  him.  To  linguistics  and  general  philology  and 
to  the  verbal  side  of  Greek  learning  he  was  not  so 


much  drawn  as  to  all  the  manifestation  of  the  Greek 
mind  and  life.  Here  again  it  was  Athens  in  her 
palmiest  days ;  it  was  her  unrivalled  dramatic  poets, 
and  especially  that  prince  of  the  ancient  comedy,  who 
discloses  to  us  the  life  of  Athens  at  the  pinnacle  of 
her  renown,  and  when  she  was  sliding  down  from  her 
eminence — it  was  this  age  and  these  monuments  of 
Greece  which  had  the  greatest  charms  for  him.  The 
spirit  of  Aristophanes  lodged  in  Professor  Felton ;  he 
had  the  same  sense  of  the  ludicrous,  the  same  keen 
judgment  of  character,  the  same  underlying  earnest- 
ness of  patriotism,  the  same  political  conservatism. 

A  mind  which  had  such  a  strong  relish  for  exhibi- 
tions of  life  in  the  concrete  forms  would  be  apt  to 
convey  pleasant  and  profitable  instruction.  Professor 
Felton  seems  to  have  been  a  very  genial  instructor, 
clear  in  his  conceptions  and  explanations,  sufficiently 
strict  in  grammatical  analyses  and  in  keeping  his 
pupils  to  their  tasks,  and  yet  relieving  the  tedium  of 
the  recitation-room  by  lively  illustrations  of  the  author 
read,  so  that  the  lesson  was  not  more  a  task  than  a 
pleasure,  enriching  and  beautifying  everything  by 
references  to  ancient  art,  as  well  as  by  a  pure  manly 
taste  which  went  along  with  his  whole  scholarship. 

This  sesthetical  power  of  his  mind  deserves  a  more 
distinct  mention.  He  had  within  him  a  love  of  art, 
and  his  judgment,  natively  sound,  was  improved  by 
devotion  to  a  language  and  a  literature  which  culti- 
vate the  taste  more  than  any  other.     To  him,  there- 


fore,  the  life  of  Greece  consisted  not  solely  in  its 
poets,  orators,  historians,  and  philosophers,  but  in  the 
euphonies  of  its  words,  in  the  rhythm  of  its  periods, 
in  its  wondrously  exquisite  and  varied  poetical  me- 
tres, in  its  simple  but  grand  architecture,  in  those 
works  of  its  sculptors  and  founders  which  immortal- 
ized over  again  the  materials  of  a  literature  already 
immortal. 

Here  we  may  add  that  he  had  two  opportunities  of 
inspecting  the  monuments  of  Greek  art,  and  of  visit- 
ing that  land  where  so  many  of  his  thoughts  had 
dwelt.  In  1853,  and  the  following  year,  he  devoted 
five  months  of  a  European  tour  to  Greece,  ancient 
and  modern,  to  her  present  life  and  the  remains  of 
her  past  glory;  and  again  in  1858  he  spent  part  of 
another  summer  in  the  same  land.  Whatever  re- 
*minded  of  ancient  days  and  enabled  him  to  conceive 
more  clearly  and  understand  more  fully  the  meaning 
of  the  ancient  writers,  together  with  those  reliques  of 
art  which  time  and  barbarism  have  spared — this  natu- 
rally claimed  his  attention  first,  but  he  sympathized 
also  with  the  free,  hopeful,  restored  Greece  of  the 
present,  he  examined  the  workings  of  her  political 
institutions,  visited  the  halls  of  legislation  at  the 
capital,  formed  an  acquaintance  with  the  learned  men 
who  adorn  the  University  of  Athens,  and  returned  in 
the  faith  that  modern  Greece  has  a  noble  destiny 
before  her.  He  was  led  by  his  tours  to  connect  the 
Greek  and  the  Romaic  languages  more  closely  toge- 


10 

ther,  to  urge  the  importance  of  studying  the  latter, 
and  to  advocate  the  application  of  the  modern  pro- 
nunciation to  the  literature  of  the  ancient  tongue. 
Not  long  after  his  return  from  his  first  journey,  in 
the  year  1856,  he  published  selections  from  modern 
Greek  writers,  accompanied  with  explanatory  notes, 
and  a  little  earlier  enriched  an  American  edition  of 
Smith's  "History  of  Greece"  with  a  preface,  notes, 
and  a  continuation  of  Greek  History  from  the  Roman 
Conquest  until  the  present  time. 

While  engaged  in  the  daily  duties  of  a  laborious 
profession,  Mr.  Felton  found  leisure  to  prepare  for 
the  press  a  number  of  editions  of  Greek  authors  and 
other  works  within  the  same  department.  His  maiden 
work  of  this  kind  was  an  edition  of  Homer's  Iliad, 
published  in  18»S3,  with  English  notes — which  were 
carefully  revised  and  enlarged  in  subsequent  editions 
— and  with  the  addition  of  Flaxman's  illustrations. 
Next,  in  1840,  he  sent  forth  from  the  press  a  Greek 
reader,  containing  selections  from  writers  of  the  best 
stamp — a  work  which  has  been  repeatedly  printed, 
and  has  maintained  its  ground  among  the  principal 
introductions  to  the  study  of  that  language.  This 
was  followed  in  the  next  year  by  an  edition  of  the 
Clouds  of  Aristophanes,  with  an  introduction  and  a 
commentary,  which  appeared  again  in  a  revised  form 
and  was  republished  in  England.  In  1843,  in  con- 
junction with  Professor  Edwards,  of  Andover,  and 
Professor  Sears,  then  of  the  Baptist  Theological  Semi- 


/ 
/ 


11 

nary  at  Newton,  he  published  a  work  entitled  Classi- 
cal Studies,  consisting  principally  of  translations  from 
the  German,  his  contributions  being  selections  from 
the  works  of  Frederic  Jacobs.  In  1844  he  rendered 
a  valuable  service  to  classical  literature  by  translating, 
in  conjunction  with  Professor  Beck,  Munk's  Treatise 
on  Greek  and  Roman  Metres.  Three  years  afterward 
appeared  his  editions  of  the  Panegyricus  oflSocrates 
— that  much  polished  closet-oration  of  the  "old  man 
eloquent,"  and  of  the  Agamemnon  of  ^^Eschylus — that 
difficult  chef-d'oeuvre  of  the  earliest  dramatist.  Both 
of  these  passed  into  second  editions.  In  1849  he 
brought  out  an  edition  of  the  Birds  of  Aristophanes, 
and  in  1852,  "Selections  from  Greek  Historians," 
namely,  from  Herodotus,  Thucydides,  Xenophon,  Po- 
lybius,  Diodorus  Siculus,  Arrian,  and  Pausanias.  In 
the  course  of  the  same  year  appeared  a  tribute  from 
his  pen  to  the  memory  of  his  immediate  predecessor 
in  the  Eliot  professorship,  entitled  "Selections  from 
the  Writings  of  Dr.  Popkin,  with  a  Biographical 
Sketch." 

These  were  his  principal  contributions  through  the 
press  and  bearing  his  own  name,  to  the  main  study 
of  his  life.  But  we  ought  not  to  pass  over  his  fre- 
quent lectures  and  anonymous  writings  tending  to 
illustrate  and  recommend  Greek  learning,  such  as  his 
four  courses  of  Lowell  Lectures,  and  his  frequent 
contributions  to  the  North  American  Review. 

Nor  ought  the  briefest  sketch  of  Mr.  Felton's  life 


12 

to  omit  his  literary  labors  beyond  his  own  immediate 
province.  As  his  mind  strove  to  grasp  universal 
knowledge,  and  as  he  maintained  a  lively  sympathy 
with  the  literature  of  most  of  the  cultivated  nations, 
so,  from  time  to  time,  he  poured  forth  through  the 
press  the  gatherings  of  his  rich  and  many-sided  mind. 
Among  his  original  works  we  mention  his  "  Life  of 
General  Eaton,"  in  the  ninth  volume  of  the  first  series 
of  Sparks'  "  American  Biographies ;"  his  biographical 
notices  accompanying  Longfellow's  "  Poets  and  Poetry 
of  Europe ;"  his  articles  in  the  North  American,  up- 
wards of  fifty,  and  in  the  Christian  Examiner,  upwards 
of  twenty-five  in  number;  his  contributions  to  the 
New  American  Encyclopcedia*  and  others  less  elaborate 
in  the  daily  journals.  If  with  these  we  take  into 
view  the  help  which  he  lent  in  various  ways  to  edu- 
cation and  science,  as  one  of  the  Massachusetts  Board 
of  Education,  as  one  of  the  School  Committee  for  the 
town  of  Cambridge,  and  as  Regent  of  the  Smithsonian 
— to  which  trust  he  was  elected  on  the  resignation  of 
Mr.  Choate,  in  1856,  and  re-elected  for  the  full  term 
of  six  years  in  February,  1861 — and  if  we  bring  into 
account,  also,  his  labors  for  a  number  of  years  in  the 
office  of  Regent  in  Harvard  University,  and  that  at 
the  same  time  he  gave  instructions  in  a  school  under 
the  charge  of  Professor  Agassiz,  we  shall  wonder  that 
one  man,  besides  the  duties  of  a  very  laborious  pro- 

^       *  Some  of  these  were  on  Agassiz,  Athens,  Attica,  Demosthenes, 
Euripides,  and  Homer. 


13 

fessorship,  was  able  to  do  so  much,  and  perhaps 
wonder  still  more  that  he  did  it  all  so  easily  to  him- 
self and  so  well.  It  is  rare,  we  imagine,  to  find  a  life 
of  so  much  faithful,  patient  industry  united  to  a 
temper  so  genial  and  social  as  his,  so  capable  of 
finding  entertainment  and  recreation  on  every  side. 

The  services  of  such  an  academical  ofiicer  could  not 
fail  to  be  prized  and  honored.  Years  before  his  elec- 
tion to  the  presidency  of  Harvard,  his  name  was  pro- 
minent among  those  who  were  thought  of  for  that 
post ;  and  when  President  Walker  felt  compelled  by 
ill-health  to  retire  from  the  station  which  he  had  filled 
so  wisely  and  satisfactorily,  the  voice  of  the  public 
anticipated  the  votes  of  the  boards  which  constituted 
Prof  Felton  his  successor.  He  was  inaugurated  into 
his  new  office  July  the  19th,  1860,  and  those  who 
heard  his  address  pronounced  upon  that  occasion,  if 
they  had  not  known  the  man  before,  must  have  felt 
assured  that  his  administration  would  be  firm  and 
vigorous.  The  distinct  opinion  which  he  there  avows, 
that  no  ofiiences  against  civil  order  can  be  tolerated  in 
a  college  which  would  not  be  borne  in  the  wider 
circles  of  citizens — that  academical  walls  can  furnish 
no  refuge  for  crimes,  nor  academical  relations  justify 
outrages  on  gentlemanly  propriety,  or  on  the  feelings 
of  fellow-students,  was  one  which  commends  itself  to 
all  who  are  acquainted  with  our  higher  institutions 
of  learning,  and  which,  if  united  in  the  carrying  of  it 
out  with  such  kindliness  as  was  manifest  in  the  cha- 


/ 


14 

racter  of  President  Felton,  would  strengthen  and 
secure  everything  that  is  good  in  a  college  life. 
Whatever  temporary  obstacle  or  local  custom,  "more 
honored  in  the  breach  than  in  the  observance,"  might 
oppose  for  a  time,  it  is  certain  that  the  claims  of  law 
and  order  would  at  length  prevail,  and  the  state  of 
things  afterwards  become  so  much  the  better. 

President  Felton  entered  thus  into  his  new  duties, 
with  the  confidence  of  the  wisest  and  best  on  his 
side,  and  gave  himself  up  chiefly  to  administrative 
functions,  not  without  deep  regrets,  we  are  sure,  at 
leaving  those  pleasant  toils  which  had  filled  thirty 
years  of  his  life.  But  Divine  Providence  had  scarcely 
invested  him  with  his  new  authority  when  he  was 
summoned  away  from  these  earthly  responsibilities 
and  labors.  A  little  less  than  two  years  of  his  ofiScial 
life  had  elapsed,  when  the  complaint  of  which  he  died 
— ^hypertrophy  of  the  heart — showed  itself  in  an  ag- 
gravated form,  after  having  manifested  its  presence  in 
his  system  for  some  twenty  years.  He  was  not,  how- 
ever, so  ill  at  first  but  that  he  could  undertake  a 
journey,  and  it  was  hoped  that  a  change  of  climate 
might  do  him  good.  Setting  out  for  Washington — 
where  he  intended  to  be  present  at  a  meeting  of  the 
Regents  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution — ^he  had 
reached  the  house  of  his  brother  in  Chester,  Penn- 
sylvania, and  was  seized  with  an  attack  of  disease 
during  the  ensuing  night.  Here  he  breathed  his  last, 
Wednesday,  the  26th  of  February,  1862.   His  remains 


15 

were  removed  to  Cambridge,  where  a  sermon  on  his 
death  was  preached,  March  the  9th,  by  Dr.  Peabody, 
Preacher  to  the  University,  and  appropriate  resolu- 
tions, in  honor  of  his  memory,  were  passed  by  the 
Governing  Boards,  the  Faculties,  and  others. 

We  have  spoken  of  President  Felton  as  a  scholar 
and  a  worker,  earnest  and  successful,  in  the  field 
where  Providence  placed  him.  But  the  man  is  far 
more  in  the  scale  than  the  scholar.  Let  us  then  look 
for  a  few  moments  at  the  man  in  his  traits  of  mind 
and  character,  and  in  the  conduct  of  life. 

His  mind,  as  may  have  already  appeared  from  what 
we  have  said  of  his  scholarship,  was  a  rounded,  well- 
balanced,  many  sided  one,  where  no  trait  was  defi- 
cient. Yet  the  predominance  of  the  eesthetic  faculty, 
with  the  attendant  pleasure  derived  from  art  and  the 
works  of  creative  intellect,  may  have  given  that  di- 
rection towards  scholarship  and  belles  lettres,  towards 
the  concrete  form  rather  than  the  abstract  metaphy- 
sical principle,  which  somewhat  characterized  him. 
His  simple  correct  taste,  and  his  judgment,  which 
estimated  probabilities  aright,  and  looked  below  the 
show  and  the  surface,  although,  no  doubt,  cultivated 
by  the  study  of  language,  and  especially  of  Greek 
literature,  must  have  had,  beyond  question,  an  inde- 
pendent natural  foundation.  He  had  a  native  curi- 
osity and  thirst  for  knowledge,  which  felt  and  grasped 
on  every  side ;  if  you  wanted  to  know  about  Jasmin, 
the  ProveuQal  Bums,  he  had  read  his  poems,  he  could 


16 

speak  of  the  Finnish  mythology,  and  in  his  later  years 
especially,  he  entered  with  zeal  into  the  progress  of 
natural  science.  Nor  ought  his  keen  sense  of  the 
ludicrous  and  his  humor  to  be  forgotten  here,  which 
made  him  the  most  entertaining  of  companions  with- 
out undermining  the  manliness  of  his  character.  And 
the  easy  play  of  his  faculties,  working  rapidly  and 
smoothly  without  jar  or  much  effort,  deserves  especial 
notice. 

Among  the  traits  of  President  Felton's  character 
may  be  mentioned  kindness  and  sympathy  united  with 
moral  energy,  courage  and  firmness  in  acting  up  to 
his  convictions.  His  kindly  nature  showed  itself  in 
the  forms  of  sociality,  friendliness  and  generosity 
reaching  to  self-sacrifice.  His  friendship  extended 
widely  beyond  the  borders  of  his  way  of  thinking 
in  religion  and  politics,  and  men  of  various  opinions 
and  convictions  sought  his  companionship,  and  par- 
took of  his  regards.  Few  men  have  had  more 
friends  or  fewer  enemies,  and  yet  he  never  shrunk 
from  avowing  his  own  principles.  He  enjoyed  so- 
ciety, of  which,  by  his  pleasantries  and  other  collo- 
quial powers  he  was  made  to  be  the  life.  "  He  was 
generous,"  says  his  friend  Professor  Peabody, "  to  the 
last  degree ;  no  income  could  have  made  him  rich, 
while  there  were  the  needy  around  him ;  and  of  time, 
more  precious  than  gold,  and  of  the  wealth  of  intel- 
lect, he  was  no  less  lavish  than  of  the  inferior  goods, 
which  he  prized  only  as  the  means  of  making  others 


17 

happy.  The  labor  of  hand  and  brain,  which  might 
have  been  employed  in  building  up  his  own  fame, 
was  freely  given  to  all  who  sought  it.  Many  have 
been  the  literary  works  and  enterprises  with  which 
his  name  was  never  connected,  which  owed  a  large 
portion  of  their  merit  and  success  to  materials  which 
he  furnished,  or  to  his  advice,  revision,  or  criticism." 
And  the  same  friend  bears  witness  to  his  sympathy 
with  "  every  noble  and  generous  work  for  human  pro- 
gress and  well  being." 

If  the  stranger,  after  an  evening's  acquaintance, 
may  have  been  led  by  Mr.  Felton's  companionableness 
and  flow  of  mirth,  to  regard  him  as  wanting  in  moral 
earnestness,  such  a  judgment  would  be  pronounced 
hasty  and  superficial  by  the  many  grave  and  good 
men  who  gave  him  their  friendship  and  respect.  He 
by  no  means  lacked  any  of  those  qualities  which  con- 
stitute the  man  of  an  earnest  and  dignified  life.  As  has 
been  beautifully  said  of  him,  "  his  force  of  character, 
hidden  on  ordinary  occasions,  by  his  gentle  and  sunny 
temperament,  appeared  impregnable  whenever  it  was 
put  to  the  test."  He  had  firm  settled  convictions  and 
well  digested  rules  of  action ;  he  had  purposes  which 
could  not  be  shaken  by  other  considerations  than 
those  addressed  to  the  reason  and  conscience ;  he  had 
a  noble  manly  courage  which  could  carry  him  onward 
in  the  face  of  opposition.  These  qualities,  with 
fidelity,  uprightness,  and  simplicity  of  character,  as 
displayed  in  his  college  duties,  and  in  the  other  rela- 


18 

tions  of  life,  secured  for  him  the  esteem  and  respect 
of  all. 

The  union  of  kindness  and  firmness,  with  sound 
judgment  and  perspicacity  made  him  an  excellent 
college  officer.  But  for  his  character  as  a  ruler  over 
students  we  will  appeal  again  to  what  Dr.  Peabody 
says  of  him.  "I  well  remember  the  early  years  of 
his  official  connection  with  the  college ;  his  fraternal 
sympathy  with  the  students;  his  gentle  discipline 
when  forbearance  was  safe  and  right ;  his  reluctant, 
yet  uniform  consent  to  sterner  measures,  when  the 
cause  of  order  and  virtue  demanded  them ;  his  tender 
consideration  for  those  who  were  struggling  as  he  had 
struggled,  bravely  and  honorably  against  adverse  cir- 
cumstances ;  his  readiness  to  sacrifice  his  own  ease  in 
aid  of  those  who  sought  to  transcend  the  required 
measure  of  study,  to  furnish  facilities  for  their  re- 
searches, and  to  contribute  from  the  funds  of  his  own 
thought  and  learning  for  their  growth  in  knowledge. 
Such  was  his  course  during  his  entire  life  as  a  teacher ; 
and  could  we  number  up  the  youth  who  have  been 
animated  by  his  example,  stimulated  by  the  genial 
fervor  of  his  enthusiasm,  encouraged  by  his  patient 
and  unselfish  devotion  to  their  welfare,  and  sustained 
in  their  worthy  ambition  after  they  left  these  halls  by 
his  persistent  and  efi'ective  friendship,  we  should  have 
a  record  of  quiet,  unostentatious  beneficence,  that 
would  distance  and  belittle  many  life-works  of  world- 
wide and  long-enduring  fame." 


19 

President  Felton  was  in  his  feelings  and  opinions, 
like  the  greater  part  of  scholars,  a  conservative,  not 
without  sympathy  with  forward  movements  in  society, 
but  led  by  his  tastes  and  acquaintance  with  the  past 
to  look  with  suspicion  on  sudden  changes  in  the  esta- 
blished order  of  things.  In  a  similar  spirit  he  showed 
no  mercy  towards  what  he  regarded  as  false  pretensions 
to  science.  It  will  not  soon  be  forgotten  with  what 
zeal  he  followed  up  the  spiritualists,  putting  their 
claims  to  the  test,  driving  them  from  point  to  point, 
and  exposing  what  he  considered  to  be  intentional 
fraud.  In  his  political  principles  he  may  be  described 
as  a  conservative  whig,  a  friend  and  admirer  of  Daniel 
Webster.  In  his  religious  faith  he  was  a  Unitarian: 
Dr.  Peabody  characterizes  him  as  "  reverent  and 
devout,  loving  the  Word  and  Ordinances  of  God, 
meekly  yielding  himself  to  the  teaching  and  leading 
of  the  Saviour,  strong  in  the  hope  that  is  full  of 
immortality." 

He  was  twice  married;  the  first  time  in  1838,  to 
Miss  Mary  Whitney,  who  died  in  April,  1845,  and 
again  in  September,  1846,  to  Miss  Mary  L.  Gary, 
who  survives  him.     He  has  left  five  children. 

Such  is  a  brief  sketch  of  one  of  the  recently 
deceased  regents  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution* — a 

*  President  Felton  took  a  lively  interest  in  the  Institution,  and  ac- 
tively participated  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Board.  His  communica- 
tions, appearing  in  the  reports  of  the  Board  are  as  follows : — In  the  Re- 
port for  1857,  p.  79,  "A  Report  on  the  Present  of  a  Book  from  Greece," 


X-  G  a^ob 


20 

man,  who,  by  his  industry  and  vigor  of  mind,  made 
himself;  a  man  whose  genial  nature  and  social  qualities 
created  friends  for  him  on  every  side ;  a  man  who  to 
the  highest  attainments  in  one  department,  united  in 
an  uncommon  degree  a  large  and  liberal  acquaintance 
with  the  circle  of  knowledge;  a  man  of  fine  tastes, 
of  most  kindly  sympathies,  of  strict  uprightness;  a 
man  who  adorned  his  professorship  by  the  best  quali- 
ties of  a  teacher,  and  the  mingled  kindness  and  firm- 
ness of  a  wise  disciplinarian,  and  who  brought  to  the 
Presidential  chair  of  Harvard  the  firm  purpose  to 
raise  the  standard  of  that  ancient  University  in  every- 
thing that  was  good  and  noble. 

p.  82 ;  one  on  "  The  purchase  of  Stanley's  Indian  Gallery,"  p.  88 ;  one 
on  "Prof.  Henry's  Communication,  relative  to  the  Telegraph,"  and  in 
the  Report  for  1859,  p.  104,  "A  Eulogy  on  Prof.  W.  W.  Turner,"  and 
p.  106,  one  "  On  Washington  Irving."  In  addition  to  which  he  gave 
several  lectures  on  Greece,  and  made  a  number  of  confidential  reports 
on  communications  relative  to  linguistics,  which  had  been  referred  to 
him  for  examination  by  the  Secretary. 


A     000  607  199     7 


